Like a Mad Scientist...Experimenting With Color

Yesterday, I started blogging about a book I was reading written by Margaret Kessler titled "Color Harmony".  I didn't make it off page 15 because there was such good information that I need to spend time  soaking it all in.  I underlined a statement under the subtitle -Increasing Intensity.  Kessler states, "To brighten a dull or tinted color, add a warm color to the mixture."  This is a bit more complicated than that because we all leaned in elementary art class that  if you add primary colors together we get a neutral color.  Not what we want here so she warns that it is important that we understand the proportions of primary color that each color contains.  The natural thought is if you want to brighten a color that you would add white and to darken you would add black.  This isn't  always a correct assumption.  Adding white to a color will often cause the color to be washed out and to look chalky. I will sometimes counteract that by adding some Naples Yellow to the color so that I don't loose the brightness.

 Adding black does darken but can look unnatural according to Kessler.  Payne's gray can darken a color but can also make the color seem boring.  I've decided to remind myself of this fact by only putting the smallest amount of Payne's gray on my palette when I lay out my colors because my natural instinct is to dip my brush in that color when it would be better for me to use dioxidine purple or ultramarine blue for my shadow colors.

Adding the complement of the color can mute and darken the color.  Adding a warm color can brighten or intensify the color. There is a great deal of information shared just on this one page and I know that it is time to pretend that I'm a mad scientist and cook up some color experiments of my own.  I think I just might take a large canvas and just section it off and do a color study this weekend.  Maybe I will just come out with some "Popping" creations and learn something in the process!

Here is my son, Dr. Jared Townsend-a for real scientist

Here Jared is conducting an experiment but I don't think he looks too mad.

The Nut Doesn't Fall Far From the Tree

This week I was completely blown away by my oldest son's political drawing and all of the issues he has so accurately addressed in this sketch.  From a technical standpoint he has done an amazing job even down to the headlines on the newspapers.  Look you can even read the title "The New York Times." Mitt Romney's discouraged look is obviously the center focus of this sketch.

A large portion of this nation feels that same way.  I believe Jared did an excellent job of capturing that emotion that many of us may feel as the nation we love seems to be headed to a uncertain future of debt, defeat and the diminish.  

No matter your political view, the artistic skill displayed here can't be denied.  I immediately shared this photo on my facebook wall so that my friends could also see his work. As a parent I felt pride that two of my son's appear to have inherited some of my artistic genes.  You would have to ask Jared about that because he is also a microbiologist and REALLY understands how all that DNA stuff works.  I did have to chuckle when my one friend replied on facebook by saying, "The nut doesn't fall far from the tree."  Wait a minute! Do you think she is calling me a NUT?

Sketch done by Dr. Jared Townsend (my son)